


Summer Storm

by Grace4all



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Todd is tired, dirk needs to have fun, the kitten-shark is happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 11:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9488618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grace4all/pseuds/Grace4all
Summary: Leave it to Dirk to make a rainy day fascinating. Involves puddles, a kitten-shark, Lake Washington, and 16 bags of fish.





	

_BOOM!_

Todd groaned as the Ridgely shook, ignoring the spike of his heart rate before he identified the echoing noise as thunder. His arm throbbed where he’d once broken it, and the grey light leaking into his room wasn’t nearly enough to see by. With his first deep sigh of the day, Todd leaned over to fumble with a lamp, swearing when the apartment remained dark. He’d had his electricity cut off. _Again._

Rubbing his face, Todd pulled his robe on and hopped to the window, hissing as his feet hit the cold floor. He stared bleakly through the cracked panel of glass, watching a drip from a reminder of the Rowdy 3.

The steady patter of rain distorted his view, turning the trees into blurry colors, the lamppost twisting, his road a murky river...with a blotch of yellow in the middle.

Todd blinked and rubbed his eyes, wondering if the events of the past few days had finally cracked him. The yellow blob bobbed around, and Todd’s curiosity won out as he pushed his window open.

The rain was much louder out here, his entry ladder slick. Todd sighed as the blob came into focus, at the same moment his psychic-not psychic-friend noticed him.

“Todd! Come down; this is magnificent!” The self-appointed detective was practically bouncing on the sidewalk, his enthusiastic voice easily heard above the storm.

Todd winced as rain trickled down his head and under the collar of his robe. “Dirk, what are you doing?” He yelled down, eyeing the dirty water along his window critically.

Dirk’s hair was plastered to his forehead, the normal reddish-brown almost as dark as Todd’s in the rain.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Dirk retorted, sounding indignant. “The Universe has given us a summer rain and you’re inside!”

“Because I don’t have a death wish,” Todd said, pulling his robe closer.

“A _death wish?_ ” Dirk scoffed. “Isn’t that a _tad_ melodramatic, Todd?”

“Yeah, well, after this week I’m not taking any chances,” he answered wearily.

Dirk gave a loud huff-a whole body affair-and rolled his eyes. “I’ve got a good feeling about this rain,” he informed. “Perhaps the excess moisture will lure Lydia or Rapunzel-the Corgi, that is,- or the puddles-” here he leapt into one, submerging his already soaked shoes- “-they might give have things inside them, and not to mention-”

“What about Paws?” Todd interrupted, thinking uneasily of the kitten-shark that was curled onto his couch. “What if the thunder sets her off?”

Dirk frowned. “Well, if it bothers you that much-”

“Will you two _shut up?_ ” A voice howled from a window below Todd’s. Dirk pulled an expressive look of shock while Todd winced as the slam of the window reached him.

“That’s the fifth time this week…” he groaned, thinking of all the neighbors who’d dragged Dirk to Todd’s door, a mixture of fear and exhaustion in their eyes as the holistic detective prattled on to them, oblivious that his comments on unfaithful lovers and deteriorating social lives went unappreciated.

“As I was saying,” Dirk continued, “if a Paws attack bothers you so much, you really ought to come down and join me!” He beamed, fully confident he’d solved the problem.

Todd glanced at the sky, then back to the kitten before a thought struck him. “Wait, is this another Universe thing? Do you know if she’s going to wreck my already-destroyed apartment?”

Dirk waved his hand. “I don’t know _anything_ , Todd. But it’ll be worth it!” He gave his assis-friend a grin. “Call it a hunch.”

“Dirk-”

The window below shot open once again.

“Give me a minute,” he called over the resident’s screams.

…………………………………………………………….

  
Todd’s complete lack of ‘rainy day’ funds also included a lack of proper rain gear, so one of his least-ratty sweatshirts would have to do. He pulled the hood up as he stepped into the Seattle rain, almost running into Dirk, who bounced eagerly as he saw Todd.

“Well it’s about time, I’ve been waiting for ages-”

“It’s been three minutes, Dirk.”

  
“Who’s to say that isn’t ages?” Dirk said, looking his assis-friend over. The rain was already soaking Todd’s cotton clothing, and Dirk knew that unless something good happened, Todd wouldn’t be in a good mood. He pushed Todd over to the edge of a puddle before squatting down. With a sigh, Todd copied him.

“What are we doing?” Todd asked after the appropriate amount of time.

“There's’ a lot of animals in this case, Todd,” Dirk began, not taking his eyes off the two inch puddle. “And I was thinking: What do dogs, cats, and sharks have in comment?”

“Uh-”

“Exactly! They all like to eat fish!” Dirk flapped his hands excitedly. “So in order to both subdue Paws and attract the Corgi, we need fish!”

“And we’re going to find them in a rain puddle?” Todd asked, realization on his face.

Dirk cocked his head to the side, thoughts jumbling around. “Seattle is surrounded by water,” he exclaimed. “So why, in the event of a rain storm, wouldn’t some wash out and into the streets?”

Todd opened his mouth to contradict Dirk, but the usual spiral of the detectives’ logic stopped him. “I mean...I’ve never seen it happen, but maybe closer to the waterfront-”

“-precisely!” Dirk smiled, and for a moment Todd forgot about the rain drenching his sweatshirt. “If we gather some from the ocean as well, perhaps Paws will lead us to the bad people, and then of course-”

The detective prattled on as he sprinted towards the car, practically dragging Todd behind him.

..……………………………………………………………………

“I’m going to catch pneumonia.”

“It’s August, Dirk. And it’s your own fault.”

“Ridiculous,” Dirk stated. “Falling into Lake Washington-”

“Falling? You _pushed_ me!”

“I thought I saw an orange fish! ” Dirk protested, watching Todd huddle closer to the car’s heater. “And hey, it was perhaps a different variation of orange, but we found the coho salmon nevertheless, which I am certain Paws will adore, not to mention the small sampling of trout-”

Todd glanced into the backseat, where the ‘small sampling’ lay in 16 separate bags that were currently stinking up the Corvet. Somehow, Dirk had managed to confuse a local ‘fish man’, (-”he brought a new shipment just as Patrick Spring was walking to the hotel, so naturally his goods are already connected to everything”-) into giving them his fish. Apparently, however, they’d taken too much and they’d been forced to flee to the car with their load while the man screamed and waved a giant bass at them.

“-and the best thing is that she might prefer them raw, which is good for us because I was actually banned from using kitchen appliances in my last flat after the Snowman incident-”

“Eyes on the road!” Todd yelled suddenly, lunging across Dirk to jerk the car away from a mailbox. Dirk yelped and held himself back as the car swerved around trees and other living obstacles.

It was in this same violent manner that they ended up back at the Ridgely, just as the rain began to increase. Dirk grabbed a few bags of fish and leapt out of the car, staring straight into the sky with a smile seemingly permanently etched onto his face. Todd rolled his eyes, grabbed some fish and sprinted for the Ridgely, pausing to watch Dirk, who was still staring in awe at the sky.

“Dirk! Come on, it’s getting worse!” He called, trying to ignore the fishy smell in his arms.

Dirk blinked and stared around before reluctantly following Todd, casting one more mournful glance at the rain bouncing off the sidewalk.

As they began the trek up to Todd’s apartment, he eyed the holistic detective curiously, as the man examined a fish.

“What was this really about?” Todd asked, his arms beginning to strain under 40 pounds of fish.

Dirk tilted his head, an almost comical confused look on his face. “What do you mean?” He said, quirking an eyebrow. “We needed fish for the case!”

“Yeah...I hope you know you’re gonna have to store some of this,” Todd said, thinking of his own dented freezer. Before Dirk could launch into an inevitable rant on the Universe accommodating his own storage space, he added, “but I mean, why _today?_ And don’t give me that ‘hunch’ crap. We could have just bought this fish.”

Dirk was, remarkably, silent for a moment. He bit his lower lip as they climbed the stairs, traipsing through the narrow hallways with ease.

“I just thought...it would be nice to be out in the rain,” he eventually worked out, keeping his eyes fixed to the floor. “I didn’t get to see much of the...outside...when I was...well, you know,” he shrugged, an awkward motion with three bags of trout. “It’s nice to just….enjoy it.”

Todd blinked, his mind racing back to Dirk’s equally awkward confession on the basics of Blackwing as they’d driven back from digging up Patrick Spring’s machine. He pictured Dirk stuck in a cell deep below the Earth and shuddered.

“Well, it rains plenty here, so you’ll have lots of chances,” he offered as they came down Todd’s hallway. “And hey, maybe next time we can try Union- _what the hell?”_

“‘Union what-the-hell?’ Is that another lake?” Dirk asked, mistaking Todd’s shout.

Todd’s already damaged door had a new dent right down the middle, along with a piece of paper stuck to the door with a steak knife.

“Is it a ransom? Do the Bad People know we have Paws? Is it Lydia? Is it-”

Todd gave a long sigh as he shifted through the profanity in the note. “It’s the people downstairs. Something about an…” he squinted, “...’ _apple pipe?’”_

“Ah, yes,” Dirk answered, squirming a bit. “I told them the reason for their clogged pipes might relate to their Black Market of rare apples?”

“An _Apple Black Market?_ I-never mind.” He crumpled the note and went to push the door open. “At least I didn’t have to deal with that…” he froze and stared at Dirk. “Wait, is that why you told me to come-”

“Come on Todd! We need to get the kitten-shark’s approval!” Dirk pushed the door open, Todd following behind, glad to see Paws pacing the kitchen counter and with no new bloodstains on the wall.

Dirk dropped the fish and immediately scooped the kitten up, cooing at the murder weapon. Paws mewled and batted Dirk’s face, causing the detective’s face to light up. “I _knew_ you liked me!” He beamed.

“You wanna pick a fish for her?” Todd asked, pulling off his soaked sweatshirt. “And a towel, maybe?”

“A towel I don’t think she needs-”

“For you, Dirk. You’re dripping lake water onto my floor.”

The detective stared down at the puddle surrounding his shoes and shrugged. “It’s not the worst that’s happened to it…”

“Call it damage control,” Todd quipped, grabbing two towels.

  
“You can pick the fish,” Dirk said, scratching the kitten-shark under the chin.

“You sure?” Todd asked, surprised.

Dirk nodded. “I have complete faith in your fish-choosing abilities.”

Todd opened the nearest bag, scanning the contents through Dirk’s eyes. After a moment, he grabbed the bright pink fish, sensing the other man’s smile at the selection.

A few minutes later, both men had (mostly) dried off, Todd having to convince Dirk to let him hang his jacket up to dry, and the Brit wore the towel as a cape to compensate. Todd carefully cut the salmon up, Paws winding her way around his ankles. Dirk was practically bouncing in excitement, snatching the plastic plate from Todd and presenting it to the kitten-shark with a loud, “ _Ta-da!”_

The kitten somehow managed to look unimpressed as she circled the plate, before she eventually took a piece, her white teeth gleaming. Both men held their breath as she swallowed, gave a small ‘mew’, and settled down to finish the fish. Dirk silently punched the air as Todd allowed himself a small smile.

“I _told_ you it was worth it,” Dirk said smugly.

“Worth Lake Washington?”

Dirk considered the gentle weight of Todd’s towel around his shoulders, the dark warmth of the apartment, the kitten happily snacking on the ill-gotten fish.

“I’d say so,” the detective concluded. “What do you think?”

Todd looked at Dirk’s small smile, and felt the last of the rain’s chill leave him.

"Definitely." 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoyed! More are on the way...  
> -Grace


End file.
